Page 4 - English 11 | Games and Activities-3

THEME 3 HARD TIMES

FUNCTIONS
F1 Describing events happening at the same time in the past
11 GRADE F2 Explaining people’s habits in the past
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1 Guess the Gesture

This activity aims to practice people’s habits in the past by using used to form in sentences. It also improves students’
speaking skills.

Materials and Preparation

Copy and cut out the cards on page 58.

Procedure

1 Write a random sentence about the invention of an item on the board starting with e.g. ‘‘Before the invention of the
car, people used to… or people didn’t use to…’’ and encourage your students to make some meaningful sentences
by completing the example.
2 Divide your students into two teams as A and B.
3 Ask Team A to send a player as a volunteer to start the game.
4 Tell the player that s/he is going to pick a card and mime the action to his/her team in a minute.
5 If the students in Team A guess the action correctly, tell the player to write it on the board.
6 Encourage students in Team A to guess the invention and make a meaningful sentence as it is written on the board.
If the team manages to do this, they score 2 points.
7 If they cannot guess the invention and make a complete sentence, the player continues miming and both teams try
to guess the sentence and score 1 point.
8 Then a student from Team B takes it in turns and the game goes on. The team with the highest score wins.

2 Find Out!

This activity enables students to explain people’s habits in the past. It also helps them to practice speaking and listening
skills by doing a class survey.

Materials and Preparation

Copy the worksheet on page 59 for each student.

Procedure

1 Give each student a copy of the worksheet.
2 Demonstrate the activity. Take a worksheet and ask a student the first question: “Did you use to have a pet when
you were a child?” If the student answers, “No, I didn’t.”, say “Thank you.” and ask another student. If the student
answers, “Yes, I did.”, put a tick next to the question. After you have asked the class the same question, count up the
number of ticks and tell the result to the class, e.g. “Two people used to have a pet when they were children.” Once
the students understand how they are going to use the worksheet, start the game.
3 Get students to do a similar survey. If it’s a crowded class, you may have students choose five questions to ask.
4 Tell them to stand up and mingle to ask the questions on their worksheets.
5 Set a time limit, e.g. 20 minutes.
6 When the activity is over, get feedback from students about the result of the survey.
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